The present invention generally relates to a packaging set for solid articles which includes a blister package for accommodating hermetically sealed solid articles such as medicines or drugs having the shape of tablets, pills, troches, capsulated materials or the like therein, and a carrier casing or tablet dispenser of 2 portable type for use in receiving the solid articles from the blister package therein, which allows the transfer operation for the solid articles to be easily carried out without causing any problems.
Generally, medical products or drugs are not only value-added expensive items, but are given a long term quality guarantee, and accordingly it is required for to prevent deterioration of quality of the products during the distribution or storage thereof. For this reason, a package container or receptacle for the medical products must function as a hermetic seal to protect the quality of the products. On the other hand, the packaging container is required to allow easy dispensing of the medical products when necessary. The above-mentioned two functions are contrary to each other, namely, the sealing function and easy dispensing function cannot be achieved by one packaging container alone from the practical view point because of restrictions in design and high manufacturing cost.
Accordingly, conventionally, a carrier dispenser is attached to an original container when solid medicines such as tablets, capsulated materials etc. which are relatively often carried outside among medical products are concerned. In this case, when the solid medicines are carried outside, the solids medicines should be repacked from the original container to the carrier dispenser, so that the solid medicines can be easily taken out when necessary. Therefore, a large plastic bottle or a large plastic box is employed for the original container for many cases. A additionally used as the carrier dispenser. Besides, the solid medicines are generally formed as dislike tablets and therefore are packed in compact within the carrier dispenser if they are piled up in a thickness direction.
In the conventional arrangement as described above, however, it is inconvenient to repack the solid medicines from the original container to the carrier dispenser.
For instance, the solid medicines are changed from the original container to the carrier dispenser generally in the following complicated procedure.
(1) In each of the original container and carrier dispenser a space for the changimg operation is necessary to provide of itself in addition to a capacity for the accommodation, respectively.
(2) A temporary container for temporarily containing tablets and a pincette for the changing operation are prepared separately from the original container.
(3) A mouth of the original container is opened.
(4) Tablets, the number of which is selected on the supposition that it approximately corresponds to the capacity of the carrier dispenser are changed from the original container into the temporary container.
(5) The tablets changed into the temporary container are changed to the carrier dispenser by the use of the pincette.
(6) The tablets are aligned in a row within the carrier dispenser.
(7) If the tablets in the temporary container are less or more than the capacity of the carrier dispenser, the corresponding amount of the tablets are additionally taken out from the original container or returned back to the original container.
(8) The case cover of the carrier dispenser is closed.
(9) The mouth of the original container is closed.
(10) The temporary container and the pincette are put away to the initial positions.
In addition, in a special case, the abovedescribed operations (5) and (6) may sometimes be necessary to be repeated. Also, if the tablets are changed and moved by fingers of an operator without use of the pincette, the fingers should be cleaned before and after the changing operation.
As described hereinabove, according to the conventional manner, many operations including the above ten steps are needed to be performed for changing tablets from the original container to the carrier dispenser. In addition, considerably attention should be taken so that the tablets do not scatter outside or do not get wet during the changing operation, and therefore the conventional changing operation is regared as troublesome or tiresome for an operator.
Moreover, in the changing operation, every time the mouth of the original container is opened, the interior of the original container is exposed to the air, which invites quality deterioration of the tablets contained in the original container as a result of moisture absorption or the like.
In order to eliminate the above-describe disadvantages, one solution can be proposed in such a manner that the original container is formed compact in size so as to be carried as is, whereby the changing operation can be omitted.
In general, the medical products are wrapped in a package mostly by a PTP (Press Through Pack) method by employment of a sealing film, for example, an aluminum foil, etc., to close the opening of the package air-tight. In the case of the PTP method, when solid medicines such as tablets or capsulated medicines are taken out of the package, the packed solid medicines are pressed from above by a finger or fingers of an operator thereby to break the sealing film of the package. Also, based on the above-described PTP method, a blister package which is used for packing various kinds of miscellaneous goods like a stick of rouge, a tube of adhesive agent, etc. can be employed to pack the solid medicines. For instance, as seen from FIGs. 11 and 12, a blister package B' is constructed by sealing tablets A into a container 1' by a film cover F' bonded on the flange of an opening of the container 1'. When the tablets A are desired to be taken out from the package B', the bottom of the container 1' is pushed on by a finger or fingers of an operator to break the film cover F' as shown in FIG. 11, or the film cover F' is peeled off from the container 1 to open the opening of the container 1' as shown in FIG. 12.
The above-described blister package is advantagous in that conventional manfacturing equipment can be used, a small amount of materials are enough for manufacture, and the form of the container is good for the carrying purpose. On the other hand, however, the blister package has been such drawbacks that once the film cover is broken or opened, the tablets remaining within the container exit at random from the opening of the container, while foreign items easily invade the package, deteriorating the quality of the tablets, causing poor appearance of the package and, subsequently the blister package is inconvenient in practical use.